Appreciation post: The day a Cessna 172's nose gear wouldn't lock down

We had a pilot call in with a gear warning light on final, and after talking him through the manual extension, he landed safe but the nose strut was just dangling. It turned out a tiny, 25-cent cotter pin on the uplock assembly had sheared, which we found after pulling the whole panel in the 95-degree Texas heat. Has anyone else had a simple part cause a huge headache like that?

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3 Comments

ryan_price6mo ago

That 25-cent cotter pin, did it look worn or just snap clean?

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evanc676mo ago

I mean it's a cotter pin, they're basically meant to fail. Maybe it's just me but I doubt that tiny piece of metal was the main problem.

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the_sean6mo ago

Isn't the whole point of a cotter pin to be the weak link? It's supposed to shear before something more expensive breaks, so finding it snapped clean is exactly what you'd expect.

7